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Huntsman Alumni Magazine

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Fall 2008

Student news and achievements.

Students pitch ideas at Entrepreneur Day

Last spring the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business gave students another opportunity to learn how to succeed in an elevator.

It was all part of the school’s Entrepreneur Day, an annual event designed to spark the entrepreneurial fires on campus. The elevator pitch competition is a contest that gives students a chance to quickly pitch their best new business ideas to a panel of successful entrepreneurs.

Richard Gordon speaks at Entrepreneur Day.

This year John Jorgenson, a senior majoring in international business, placed first with an idea to put advertising on the side of trucks. He won $3,800.
Don Wortley, a senior majoring in economics with a minor in management, placed second. Joseph Irvine, a sophomore, majoring in management information systems, placed third. Tyler Hepworth, a senior, majoring in finance, placed fourth and Brett Adams a junior, majoring in history with a minor in Spanish, placed fifth.

The event, which includes breakout sessions with various speakers, is funded by Gary Anderson, a 1978 graduate who majored in accounting. vSpring Capital, a traditional early-stage venture capital firm, also supported the event. Robert B. Murray, chairman of the board for Alpine Confections, was the keynote speaker.
Anderson, executive vice president of product development and distribution for Coffee Exchange of the Americas (CEOTA), has been supporting the competition every year since it began in 2006.

“I know I’m not necessarily an expert, but I’d like these students to benefit from what I know and from what other entrepreneurs are willing to share,” he said. “I’d like to see these students get a good foundation. My hope is that they’ll go out and be successful and will, in turn, help out the other students who will follow them.”

Huntsman students from USU extend regional winning streak to seven

For the seventh year in a row, a Jon M. Huntsman School of Business Human Resources team took first place in a regional human resources contest.

Another team from the Huntsman School of Business took third in the competition held in San Antonio, Texas, March 28 and 29. The regional games, sponsored by Society for Human Resource Management, pitted 15 student teams from a nine-state area in a Jeopardy-style contest that tested their knowledge of basic human resources terminology, court cases and practices, according to Alan Warnick, a coach and the interim head of the Management department.

Earlier this year the school sent three teams to the Utah State HR Games, where seven teams from USU, Weber State and Brigham Young University competed. The USU team, which started practicing in September, has also placed first at the state level for seven years in a row.
The games used to be held on a national level, but now teams may only advance as far as the regional competition. When the national battles were held, the Huntsman team placed second two years ago, the last year of the national HR games. In the five years before that it placed third, fourth, fifth, sixth and third place.

Huntsman students win Utah Real Estate Challenge

A team of four Jon M. Huntsman School of Business students won first place at the 2007 Utah Real Estate Challenge, a distinction that comes with a $20,000 first prize.

Forty-seven teams from four academic institutions registered to compete in the challenge that was sponsored by Zions Bank, the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah and other corporate sponsors from around Utah.
More than two dozen teams from the U of U and more than a dozen teams from Brigham Young University registered to compete.

Jamie Lucky, Katie Cox, Morgan Cox and Brad Ethington show off their check.

The students on the winning team, all from Professor Alan Stephens’ USU real estate finance class, were Morgan Cox, Katie Cox, Jamie Lucky and Brad Ethington. The team named “Aggie Developers,” was one of two USU teams to compete.

The students were asked to create a proposal for the development of an actual piece of real estate, Stephens said. They asked a market professional, Steven Stokes, and Stephens to assist them as advisors. They prepared a proposal for the Pine Crest Shopping Center in Logan located at 1400 North and Main. The shopping mall is home to a number of businesses, including Little Caesar’s Pizza, Café Rio and Checker Auto.